Unicorn Watch

“Unicorn” Messaging Start-Up Slack Could Be Worth $4 Billion

The tech bubble in Silicon Valley may be losing air, but at least one billion-dollar start-up is still flying high. Slack, the workplace communication platform, is said to be raising anywhere from $150 million to $300 million in a new round of funding that would value the company at up to $4 billion, according to Bloomberg, well above its current $2.8 billion valuation. Slack has already raised $340 million in venture capital, including a $160 million Series E round the company raised in April 2015. Its investor list reads like a Who’s Who in Silicon Valley: Chamath Palihapitiya’s Social Capital, Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, SV Angel, and Accel have all been lead investors for Slack’s funding rounds. The company didn’t comment on the funding news, telling Bloomberg, “there has always been a great deal of investor interest in the company, and we expect that to continue.”

Slack C.E.O. Stewart Butterfield is a Silicon Valley double-success story. Before founding his multi-billion-dollar communication tool, Butterfield founded Flickr, which sold to Yahoo in early 2005 for $35 million. Butterfield joined and then left Yahoo, and along with some of his old co-workers from Flickr, he set out to build a multi-player gaming start-up. They founded a start-up called Tiny Speck, which built a game called Glitch, which ended up being a total failure. But there was one good thing to come from the wreckage of Tiny Speck and Glitch: a tool the team called Slack, which has upended how companies everywhere communicate.

Right now, Silicon Valley doesn’t seem to be the most hospitable place for start-ups. In the last three months of 2015, only 12 new “unicorns,” billion-dollar private tech companies, got their new, lofty valuations, according to CB Insights. Venture-capital funding has slowed down. Deal-making activity fell to its lowest level in three years. There seems to be a freeze on tech I.P.O.s, and some billion-dollar start-ups are even laying off employees. But in spite of all of this, Slack has been lauded for its massive growth. Last month, Butterfield said 20 percent of Slack’s 2.3 million daily monthly active users started using the app for the first time in the past two months. In an otherwise unstable time in Silicon Valley, a new round of funding for Slack would indicate investors still have confidence in at least one high-growth start-up.

Jeff Bezos

It’s tough to think of anyone who had a better financial year than Jeff Bezos, until you look at his company, Amazon, whose stock soared 115 percent over the course of the year. Naturally, that translates to Bezos’s own net worth, which increased 105 percent, or nearly $30 billion, making him the billionaire whose piles of money grew faster than any other billionaire in 2015. If that is not enough to cap off Bezos’s year, his commercial space-flight company Blue Origin successfully launched and landed a rocket this fall, and, most important, he joined Twitter (where he subsequently threw subtle shade at fellow space pioneer Elon Musk). Here’s to hopefully more social-media feuding, rocket launches, and 11-figure increases in the year ahead.

Thomas Peterffy

Hungarian-born pioneer of computerized stock trading Thomas Peterffy had one heck of a 2015. Peterffy, the chairman of electronic broker Interactive Brokers Group, saw his fortune rise more than 38 percent, or about $5 billion. Peterffy, who listed his 80-acre Greenwich, Connecticut, estate for $65 million this summer, has Interactive Brokers’ strong performance to thank for his second place ranking on this most illustrious list. The stock climbed more than 45 percent so far this year, which, if you own nearly 85 percent of the brokerage, as Peterffy does, means a nice chunk of change. Maybe this means he will add another Salvador DaliAlice in Wonderland statue to his office (he already has one on his desk, according to Bloomberg). He can certainly afford it.

Photo: By Matthew Furman/Forbes Collection/Corbis Outline.

Facebook Founders

As Facebook saw its stock rise close to 35 percent in 2015, so did the fortunes of two of the social network’s co-founders. Dustin Moskovitz and his former freshman year roommate at Harvard, Mark Zuckerberg, got a 35 percent and 33 percent increase to their net worths this year, respectively. That’s about $2.7 billion for the curly-haired Moskovitz, Facebook’s biggest individual shareholder behind Zuckerberg, and $11.4 billion for Zuck himself. Though the 31-year-olds are both billionaires many times over, all money is money appreciated, especially for Moskovitz, who left Facebook to start his own company, Asana, and Zuckerberg, new millennial dad to baby girl Max. It also means more money for the duo to donate, as Moskovitz has pledged to give away the bulk of his fortune, and Zuckerberg announced he would put 99 percent-worth of his Facebook shares into a charitable L.L.C. upon the birth of Max. Oh, to be 31, a college dropout, and a Facebook co-founder.

Google Guys

It’s still good to be Google after all these years—2015 was a year in which the company restructured, renamed itself Alphabet, and rebranded with a new logo. All of that change was for good in the eyes of investors, as the stock has soared 44 percent so far this year. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the company’s co-founders and Alphabet’s C.E.O. and president, respectively, take the fourth and fifth spots on this list, with each seeing their net worths increase by about 32 percent (around $9.8 billion for both Page and Brin). Eric Schmidt, who came to Google in 2001 and was named Alphabet’s chairman this year, saw a 24.4 percent boost, or about $2 billion, placing him seventh on the list (just behind Jan Koum, below). You can Google that.

Photo: By Paul Sakuma/AP Images.

Jan Koum

The 39-year-old WhatsApp co-founder and C.E.O. could be lumped in with the Facebook guys on this list, since his Facebook shares are responsible for his 26.6 percent bump this year—tacking on about $1.8 billion to his net worth. Koum, who sold WhatsApp to Facebook for $22 billion in cash and stock in 2014, has been riding the Facebook high this year. He also unloaded about $286 million worth of shares in November, after the social network’s stock hit a then all-time high. The Facebook magic was enough to knock Eric Schmidt away from his fellow Googlers on the list and nudge his way into sixth place.

Photo: By Robyn Twomey/Redux.

Micky Arison

If you thought no one would want to go on cruises after a series of high-profile norovirus outbreaks and ships sinking, tell that to Micky Arison, chairman of Carnival Cruise Line, the world’s largest cruise-line operator. The company’s stock has surged nearly 20 percent so far this year, thanks to strong earnings and positive 2016 outlook. Arison, who also owns the Miami Heat, saw his fortune increase 24.4 percent increase, bringing his total close to $2 billion.

Photo: By Alyson Aliano/Redux.

Mark Shoen

He may not have the name recognition that some of the other billionaires on this list enjoy, but Mark Shoen and his bank account don't mind. An owner of Amerco, the company that owns U-Haul, Shoen received a delivery of an extra $1.2 billion this year—a 24 percent increase—as Amerco's stock skyrocketed more than 38 percent. That's a package tied up with quite a pretty little bow. (There were no photos of him on file.)

Jeff Bezos

It’s tough to think of anyone who had a better financial year than Jeff Bezos, until you look at his company, Amazon, whose stock soared 115 percent over the course of the year. Naturally, that translates to Bezos’s own net worth, which increased 105 percent, or nearly $30 billion, making him the billionaire whose piles of money grew faster than any other billionaire in 2015. If that is not enough to cap off Bezos’s year, his commercial space-flight company Blue Origin successfully launched and landed a rocket this fall, and, most important, he joined Twitter (where he subsequently threw subtle shade at fellow space pioneer Elon Musk). Here’s to hopefully more social-media feuding, rocket launches, and 11-figure increases in the year ahead.

Thomas Peterffy

Hungarian-born pioneer of computerized stock trading Thomas Peterffy had one heck of a 2015. Peterffy, the chairman of electronic broker Interactive Brokers Group, saw his fortune rise more than 38 percent, or about $5 billion. Peterffy, who listed his 80-acre Greenwich, Connecticut, estate for $65 million this summer, has Interactive Brokers’ strong performance to thank for his second place ranking on this most illustrious list. The stock climbed more than 45 percent so far this year, which, if you own nearly 85 percent of the brokerage, as Peterffy does, means a nice chunk of change. Maybe this means he will add another Salvador DaliAlice in Wonderland statue to his office (he already has one on his desk, according to Bloomberg). He can certainly afford it.

By Matthew Furman/Forbes Collection/Corbis Outline.

Facebook Founders

As Facebook saw its stock rise close to 35 percent in 2015, so did the fortunes of two of the social network’s co-founders. Dustin Moskovitz and his former freshman year roommate at Harvard, Mark Zuckerberg, got a 35 percent and 33 percent increase to their net worths this year, respectively. That’s about $2.7 billion for the curly-haired Moskovitz, Facebook’s biggest individual shareholder behind Zuckerberg, and $11.4 billion for Zuck himself. Though the 31-year-olds are both billionaires many times over, all money is money appreciated, especially for Moskovitz, who left Facebook to start his own company, Asana, and Zuckerberg, new millennial dad to baby girl Max. It also means more money for the duo to donate, as Moskovitz has pledged to give away the bulk of his fortune, and Zuckerberg announced he would put 99 percent-worth of his Facebook shares into a charitable L.L.C. upon the birth of Max. Oh, to be 31, a college dropout, and a Facebook co-founder.

Google Guys

It’s still good to be Google after all these years—2015 was a year in which the company restructured, renamed itself Alphabet, and rebranded with a new logo. All of that change was for good in the eyes of investors, as the stock has soared 44 percent so far this year. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the company’s co-founders and Alphabet’s C.E.O. and president, respectively, take the fourth and fifth spots on this list, with each seeing their net worths increase by about 32 percent (around $9.8 billion for both Page and Brin). Eric Schmidt, who came to Google in 2001 and was named Alphabet’s chairman this year, saw a 24.4 percent boost, or about $2 billion, placing him seventh on the list (just behind Jan Koum, below). You can Google that.

By Paul Sakuma/AP Images.

Jan Koum

The 39-year-old WhatsApp co-founder and C.E.O. could be lumped in with the Facebook guys on this list, since his Facebook shares are responsible for his 26.6 percent bump this year—tacking on about $1.8 billion to his net worth. Koum, who sold WhatsApp to Facebook for $22 billion in cash and stock in 2014, has been riding the Facebook high this year. He also unloaded about $286 million worth of shares in November, after the social network’s stock hit a then all-time high. The Facebook magic was enough to knock Eric Schmidt away from his fellow Googlers on the list and nudge his way into sixth place.

By Robyn Twomey/Redux.

Micky Arison

If you thought no one would want to go on cruises after a series of high-profile norovirus outbreaks and ships sinking, tell that to Micky Arison, chairman of Carnival Cruise Line, the world’s largest cruise-line operator. The company’s stock has surged nearly 20 percent so far this year, thanks to strong earnings and positive 2016 outlook. Arison, who also owns the Miami Heat, saw his fortune increase 24.4 percent increase, bringing his total close to $2 billion.

By Alyson Aliano/Redux.

Mark Shoen

He may not have the name recognition that some of the other billionaires on this list enjoy, but Mark Shoen and his bank account don't mind. An owner of Amerco, the company that owns U-Haul, Shoen received a delivery of an extra $1.2 billion this year—a 24 percent increase—as Amerco's stock skyrocketed more than 38 percent. That's a package tied up with quite a pretty little bow. (There were no photos of him on file.)